Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 116760 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116760 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
“Gotcha.”
“W-what?” He stumbled over the word as he gaped at her.
“I’m fine. Lighten up, man.” She walked over to where her stuff was. Some other skater ran over to hand her skateboard to her.
She smiled at the younger guy and he nearly tripped over his feet.
Yeah, Corbin understood that.
Her smile could make you feel like you were a hundred feet tall. As though you could do anything.
But the rest of the time . . . you either wanted to shake her or spank her.
Right now, he was leaning toward the latter.
That brat.
She’d pretended that she’d hurt herself. Lord, if anyone needed some discipline, it was her.
And then a long hug afterward.
Yep. That was exactly what she needed.
Corbin wasn’t happy with her.
Guilt rode Bebe hard. She’d just been playing a small joke. The truth was, she felt like one giant bruise. And she actually had been worried that she’d truly hurt herself when she’d fallen.
For the first few minutes, she couldn’t breathe and panic had welled inside her. The only reason she hadn’t slipped into a total panic attack was because of him.
Corbin.
When she’d seen him hovering over her, immediately her body had started to relax and she’d finally managed to take a small breath.
Because she’d known that she was safe. That he would take care of her.
And it wasn’t because he was her bodyguard. It was because she liked him. She was beginning to trust him.
Which was so darn stupid.
She shouldn’t trust anyone.
“Come on, let’s get you back home. I should call Hayes and have him come get us,” he said.
“I can walk.”
He shot her a look but moved beside her as she began strolling back home. He was even carrying her helmet and skateboard.
“I can carry those.” She tried to reach for them, but he drew them away with a frown.
“Don’t even think about it, Bebe.”
“It’s my stuff, though.”
“I just saw you fall through the air and slam to the ground. I am not in the mood to have you argue about carrying your things.”
Okay.
He was still a bit grouchy, then.
“I’m sorry,” she blurted out.
Shoot.
What did she do that for?
Um, maybe because it’s your fault he’s mad at you and you want to fix it.
She hated the idea that he was upset. It felt like having worms were in her belly.
Why must I always correct you, Belle? I don’t want to, but you force me to punish you in order to help you remember to be better.
Fuck. She’d taken up skateboarding to get his voice out of her head. But now he was back.
Awesome.
“What are you sorry about?”
“Pretending to be hurt when I wasn’t. That was uncalled for. Sorry,” she added again hastily.
She hoped that would be enough.
Did he want her to do more to atone?
“Hey, Bebe. Stop and look at me a moment.”
She stilled at his words and turned to look up at him.
“I’m not upset at the joke. I mean, you did give me a minor heart attack when you started limping, but that wasn’t the thing that really worried me.”
“It wasn’t?”
“Bebe, you gave me a heart attack when you fell! I thought you might have broken your neck!”
“Oh.”
Wait.
“Are you upset because you thought I was injured? You were . . . you were worried about me?”
Well, of course he was, idiot.
He’s in charge of your safety.
“You needn’t have been. I’ve been taking lessons for a while. And I’m sure that my father won’t hold it against you if I injure myself doing something I choose to do.”
He frowned down at her. “First of all, yes, your father will hold me accountable if you hurt yourself on my watch.”
Why?
It’s not like he ever cared if she hurt herself while a nanny was taking care of her.
But she didn’t say that out loud. She didn’t want to sound like she was feeling sorry for herself.
Poor little rich girl.
All that money and privilege and she still finds something to moan about.
Pathetic.
She took a slow, deep breath, fighting off the voices.
“Second, yes, I was worried about you. You sound so shocked by that. I know we haven’t known each other long, but I definitely don’t want to see you injured or in pain. And that isn’t because it’s my job.”
Wow.
Okay, wow.
“I, um, I didn’t hurt myself. But I’m sorry I worried you.”
He eyed her for a long moment. “I don’t think you should take lessons from a pimply faced, smelly, lice-ridden teenage boy. He doesn’t seem to know what he’s talking about or care that you were hurt.”
“Lice-ridden?” she squealed, ignoring the rest. “He had head lice? Oh my God.” She slapped at her hair as though she could feel the lice creeping through the strands.
This was terrible.
“That’s the part that upsets you?” he asked incredulously. “The head lice?”
“Head lice is very upsetting!” she cried. Reaching for his arm, she grabbed it and started to drag him along the street. “We need to get the car and go to the pharmacy. Now!”